Where to adopt stray Black Cats and feral Tuxedo Cats

A local cat legend and info on a black cat only adoption event this Saturday

As previously mentioned, next week we’ll be counting down the Top 25 Los Angeles Legends here at blogging.la. When I asked readers in advance to share with us some of our favorites, commenter Josh wrote in with this pic (at right):

Has anyone heard about the Mays cats of Silver Lake? Someone once told me that the reason you see a lot of stray “tuxedo” cats (black cats with white socks and bellies) around LF-SL-EP is that the Mays family lived in a mansion up some hill and bred oodles of tuxedo cats, most of whom wandered off. I adopted one, and then another one found that one, and after the mistaken-identity follies wore off, a friend adopted the second one.

His name was Spencer. He lost a fight with Silver Lake Boulevard in early 2006. The lookalike who came to stay was named Spencette.

The lesson here, apparently, is if you want a tuxedo cat just take a drive to Silver Lake and grab one (but check for a collar first, just in case its already been claimed).

However, if you’re interested in adopting an even more fabled feline – the black cat – there will be a special Black Cat Only adoption event this Saturday at the West Los Angeles Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies.

Black cats are so legendary, in fact, that many Humane Societies ban their adoptions around Halloween and other “Satanic” holidays, for fear that they’ll be used as sacrifices (more at Snopes). Fortunately, the next dangerous holiday on the calendar is St. Patricks Day on the 17th, when green cat adoptions will be prohibited. Or leprechaun adoptions. (your pick, whichever is funnier).Black Cat Adoption Event
Saturday, March 3rd
12 noon to 3:30 p.m.
West Los Angeles Centinela Feed & Pet Supplies
11055 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

5 Replies to “Where to adopt stray Black Cats and feral Tuxedo Cats”

Hey! If this is true, then we have one of these beasts from Los Feliz…there were literally hundreds of tuxedos in our neighborhood, we took a little tux stray in off the street after putting up flyers and whatnot. We’d always joke about the army of tuxdeo kitties in LF, how wonderful that there’s a story beind it!

Josh: I wasn’t implying that *you* made it up… I’ve heard dozens of ‘someone told me’ urban legends here in LA, just curious if anyone else has more information about it because it’s a great story and would explain the many tuxedo cats in the area…

The black cat affair was fun. Lots of nice cats and enthusiastic, friendly fosters… my girlfriend found a kitty she’ll most likely be adopting and I saw a Chow dog(in a separate area from the black cat cages) that melted my heart.

This isn’t an urban legend, but a fun fact; Jesse Camp works at that store.

Yeah! The guy who won the “Wanna be a VJ” thing on Mtv. I noticed him there a few months ago when I went to buy some hay for my Guinea Pigs… I was checking out and heard a familiar, scratchy, “How’s it going, bro?” and my eyes lit up when I looked to see Jesse, with much shorter hair, running my plastic bags of hay over the scanner and asking me if I had any coupons.